Behind a Top Female Name in Spanish Crime Fiction: Three Men

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Carmen Mola, a novelist publishing under a pen name, seemed to shatter a glass ceiling in the world of Spanish books. But when the author’s true identity was revealed while claiming a big prize, it was a shock.

Jorge Díaz, Antonio Mercero and Agustín Martínez receiving the Planeta prize for their novel “La Bestia,” written under the pseudonym Carmen Mola. | Josep Lago/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
MADRID — In a literary world long crowded with successful men, some held up the popularity of Carmen Mola as an example that times were changing in Spain.

Publishing under a pseudonym, the writer produced a detective trilogy with an eccentric female police inspector as the protagonist, plumbing the underworld for clues to crimes. The public was led to believe Carmen Mola was a married, female professor who lived in Madrid, but knew little else.

The mysteries, both within the plots of the novels and surrounding the author’s identity, were a recipe for success, selling hundreds of thousands of books in the Spanish-speaking world. But the greatest surprise of all came this month during a ceremony attended by the Spanish king where Carmen Mola was awarded the Planeta Prize, a literary award worth more than a million dollars.

A team of three stepped up to receive the prize. All of them were men. » | Nicholas Casey | Friday, October 29, 2021